PAGE A07, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 21, 2022
Oregon DOJ investigating COVID
testing center with Salem locations
A testing center in South Salem displays The Center for Covid Control Salem logo.
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Of the Keizertimes
The Center for Covid Control, a
COVID-testing company with two
locations in Salem, has found itself the
focus of a state investigation after it
was discovered that thousands of their
tests may be invalid.
Media outlets across the country
have reported that people have tested
negative at the company’s testing sites,
only to test positive elsewhere. Other
times, people never received test results
and some people that didn’t even test at
sites were sent results.
Kristina Edmunson, spokesperson
for Oregon's Office of the Attorney
General, confirmed in an email on
Jan. 19 that the Oregon Department of
Justice had opened a civil investigation
(Keizertimes/JOEY CAPPELLETTI)
into The Center for Covid Control
for possible violations of the Oregon
Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The Center for Covid Control oper-
ates over 300 locations in the U.S., with
three testing sites in Portland and two
in Salem. The Illinois-based company
announced last week that it was closing
all locations for a week starting on Jan.
14.
“Regrettably, due to our rapid growth and the
unprecedented recent demand for testing, we hav-
en't been able to meet all our commitments,” com-
pany CEO Aleya Siyaj said in a written statement.
“We’ve made this difficult decision to temporarily
pause all operations, until we are confident that all
collection sites are meeting our high standards for
quality."
While the company no longer lists specific loca-
tions on their website, a South Salem location that
displays the company’s logo had a sign on its door
that read, “Closed until further notice.”
Edmunson wrote that the DOJ received two con-
sumer complaints about the company in October
but didn’t launch an investigation at the time.
“Last year, we received 26,000 phone calls into
our consumer hotline, resulting in over 6,00 written
complaints. We first try to resolve the complaint
with the company, and then, if necessary, we will
open an investigation,” Edmunson said. “In this
specific case, the additional information leading
to opening a formal file (i.e. info about concerning
practices in other states) was not received until this
week.”
One of the consumer complaints in October
stemmed from a testing center in Portland and
the woman who filed the complaint said that the
test kit she was given had expired three months
prior. Additionally, the woman wrote that while
she received her test results in a couple hours, the
bin her test was located in hadn’t moved when she
returned hours later.
“How could they have both kept the same bin full
of PCR samples there and sent the samples to the
lab and had results of PCR testing to me in less than
three hours?” the woman wrote in the complaint.
It was reported last week by Willamette Week
that the Oregon Health Authority never received
any test results from The Center for Covid Control
or their lab partners Doctors Clinical Laboratory.